


Day Five

by walkerofthestars



Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: 31 one shots I'm not a good enough writer to manage to do 31 original whump fics, Alternate Universe- the justice league quit being heroes, As you do, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, I'm just not that good, Wally West is Flash, Wally has Tinnitus from getting hit by lightning, Where Do You Think You're Going, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, anyway, but only or the justive league, but they're kids still end up being heroes, i call this the Absent Heroes AU, okay so this really isn't whump but can you blame me?, one the run failed escape rescue, technically a civillian!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28088250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkerofthestars/pseuds/walkerofthestars
Summary: Whumptober 2020Where do you think you're going?On the run, failed escape, rescue“what happened to being retired?” Diana snickered.“what, random dude starts running around my city, in my colours? And you expect me to not investigate?”“hey, Brucie probably didn’t-““I did.”“seriously?” Clark sighed, “see, this is what I meant, fifteen years ago, when I said you’d never hang up the cape.”“I have,” Bruce grunted, “I just… did some digging.”“so do you know who he is?” Dinah asked, “Nightwing, I mean.”
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Wally West
Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055567
Comments: 5
Kudos: 74





	Day Five

**Author's Note:**

> as said in the notes, this really isn't whump.  
> look, i gave myself the wriggle room of just writing something for each day, whump or not, that was inspired by the prompts. I don't think it's that big a deal.  
> anyway, this stems from an idea I've had for a while of like... what of the justice league hung up the capes, but then after like a decade their kids still end up being heroes. and like, no one knows, so it's a bunch of shenanigans to keep things secret from eachother.  
> one day I'll expand on this, but for now, enjoy what's here.

“so,” Barry Allen began, “how’s the power of hindsight feel?”

The speedster was tied up securely, leg-to-leg, arm-to-torso, an inhibitor collar beeping around his neck. He was one of the lucky few, merely sitting down against the wall. Bruce was tied to the ceiling by his wrists, equally reinforced, feet to the ground, a collar on his neck as well. They all had them. Dinah was next to Barry, in similar condition.

Bruce sighed, barely suppressing a groan, “I still wouldn’t change my mind.”

“dunno,” Clark scowled, “I could really use a red cape at the moment.”

He had regained his strength since he’d been exposed to the kryptonite, but the inhibitor collar was still a nuisance. His arms were cuffed above his head to the wall but his feet had been left.

“or a hood,” Oliver said, restrained in much the same manner, staring at the cuffs around his wrists, feet chained to the ground, “god, my castle for a lockpick.”

Diana snickered, hung up just like Bruce, the two back-to-back, “you could always break your thumb.”

“no, these cuffs are special-made, too tight,” Bruce said, as if Diana had been serious.

“which means these people really thought this out,” Dinah said, “although the kryptonite and the inhibitor collars also suggested that.”

“but how do they know who we are?” Barry frowned, “we haven’t been active for years.”

“it is troubling,” Bruce said, “how could they know?”

“well, this isn’t all of us,” Barry said, “maybe some of the old class is-“

“a traitor?” Dinah asked, “none of us would turn the others in.”

“I was going to say also captured,” Barry said.

“right, okay,” Dinah said, leaning back. ‘sorry’ was also intended by the tone of her voice, but she wasn’t much for that word.

“well,” Clark grinned, “we could always wait around for Flash junior to show up.”

“that is not a real speedster,” Barry scowled, “I’ve done the research, there’s no more of us.”

“what happened to being retired?” Diana snickered.

“what, random dude starts running around _my_ city, in _my_ colours? And you expect me to _not_ investigate?”

“hey, Brucie probably didn’t-“

“I did.”

“seriously?” Clark sighed, “see, this is what I meant, fifteen years ago, when I said you’d never hang up the cape.”

“I have,” Bruce grunted, “I just… did some digging.”

“so do you know who he is?” Dinah asked, “Nightwing, I mean.”

“no,” Bruce said, with enough frustration that they could all tell he was unhappy with that fact, “if I was going to have any chance I _would_ have to put the cape back on, I’m not willing to do that.” The additional ‘yet’ went silent.

“well,” Barry sighed, “at least we’ve got someone to rely on.”

“why?” Diana said, “Bruce is doing his thing.”

“what?” Dinah asked, “are you out?”

“no,” Bruce grunted, trying to wiggle around and loosen his handcuffs, he still kept a lockpick on him but he was having some difficulties thanks to the angle and the type of lock, “it’s gonna take me a bit.”

“out of practice?”

“I don’t see you vibrating your molecules out, Allen.”

“Probably because of the _inhibitor collar_ ,” Barry said, although he still smiled, well aware that this banter was par for the course. A small part of him missed it.

“well, we could use this as a catchup,” Dinah shrugged, “how’s Dick?”

“fine,” Bruce said, focusing more on his handcuffs, “why?”

“he got kidnapped two years ago, or did you forget?”

“no,” Bruce said, “but it was two years ago, he’s fine now, he graduated college recently actually.”

Dinah sighed, unsurprised that Bruce would brush off his ward’s mental health so readily. Bruce cared, he just didn’t push.

“I haven’t seen him in a while,” Dinah said, “I miss my surrogate nephew.”

“yeah,” Barry pouted, “Wally misses him, too, and Iris.” He fake gasped, “can we organise a playdate again? Oliver, you in?”

“uh…”

“they’re all in their twenties,” Bruce said, “we don’t organise play dates anymore.”

“fine, okay, throw a charity ball or something and we’ll all come along.”

Wally stretched out his back, taking a deep breath as he fought off a yawn. he winced, the ring in his ears becoming ever more apparent, he hit shuffle on a playlist on his phone, automatically connected to his stereo, the music drowned out the ring and he almost immediately felt better. He stumbled throughout his kitchen, taking out the pancake batter he’d made the night before while he waited for the stovetop to heat up. He whistled along to the song, flipping pancakes.

He put them on his plate, a few extras set aside for later. he drenched them in syrup, grabbed a fork and knife, then turned to the table.

Someone was sitting in his spot already.

He dropped the plate, grimacing as he held the knife out in front of him, “how did you get in here?”

They held their hands up, empty of weapons, but gloved and armoured. Wally took in the appearance. A mask, dark hair, armoured clothing, weapons on a utility belt.

And a blue bird on his chest.

“easy, I’m not here to hurt you,” Nightwing said, smiling, “in fact, I think it’s time for a team up.”

Wally blinked, “uh, what?”

Nightwing glanced down at Wally’s boxers.

“perhaps you’d like to get dressed in something a little more…” he smiled, “yellow and red?”

“okay,” Flash said,” crossing his arms and glaring at the man standing on the edge of the roof, “what’s this about?”

He’d already shoved his goggles un, even though Nightwing had seen his eyes. He preferred having them on, he felt less like he was about to be found out.

Plus, they wrapped around his head to protect the buds in his ears, quietly playing music to drown out the ring. He really wished there was some miracle cure but it seemed he’d be stuck with the ring for ever. Had the original Flash had that issue? had he been struck by lightning and gone through the constant tinnitus-like ring for the rest for his life?

“talked to your uncle lately?”

Flash blinked, “what?”

“Barry Allen,” Nightwing said, “he’s your uncle, isn’t he?”

Flash stormed forward, “how the hell did you-“

Nightwing shrugged, “calm down, scarlet skippy, I just did some light research,” he said, somehow completely at ease on the edge of the roof, “purely because he’s missing.”

Flash blinked, “what?”

“Barry Allen is missing, captured actually,” he said, “by a group known as The Light.”

“oh, I know that one,” Flash smiled, “the old league’s public enemy number one.”

“so you’ve read the files?”

“the few I’ve managed to get my hands on,” he said, “I’m not much of a hacker, and the government doesn’t want to hand over everything they have.”

“they don’t have most of it anyway,” Nightwing said, “the league never signed the forms to become an official branch, they disbanded before it could happen.”

“that’s… not what the public knows.”

“no, but it’s what I know,” Nightwing said, growing dead pan once more, “and more. Barry Allen is captured, as well as a few other choice individuals. I need your help rescuing them.”

“wait,” Flash grinned, “you seriously want to team up? Dude that’s awesome.”

“yeah, I just have to check something first,” he said.

“cool, how long will that take?”

“depends, but probably about three seconds.”

Flash frowned. And then Nightwing leaned backward, tipping over the side of the building.

And fell.

“oh, shit,” he hissed, rushing forward and zooming off the building then down the wall, catching up to Nightwing and grabbing him from the air, then safely putting him down on the roof once more.

“okay, good job,” Nightwing grinned, putting away a grapple device Flash hadn’t realised he’d been holding.

“wait, you…” Flash frowned at him, “what?”

“just a test,” he smiled, “I wanted to make sure I could trust you, but also, more so, test if you actually have super speed.”

“you weren’t sure?”

“I was pretty sure,” he shrugged, “but evidence can be tampered with, or some tricks can allude.”

“well,” Flash shrugged, “happy to impress.”

Bruce heard the locks on the door opening and quickly stuffed his lock pick away, staring at the door over one shoulder as it opened.

He didn’t recognise the man who walked in, although he thought he seemed vaguely familiar. Perhaps he’d read a file or seen him in passing in the old days, but he was likely a mercenary or gun for hire, someone he hadn’t gone up against personally.

“hello heroes,” he said, his voice a disinterested drawl, “enjoying the accommodations?”

“oh, yeah, splendid,” Barry scowled, “hey, I ordered room service hours ago.”

The mercenary’s smirk was audible in their voice, Bruce scoured their appearance for hints as to why he seemed so familiar. He was wearing two-toned armour, carrying all kinds of weapons, and was missing an eye.

“well, experience tells you won’t be waiting much longer,” he said.

“and I suppose you don’t intend to tell us why?” Oliver asked.

“no, I don’t intend to,” he said.

“do we at least get the pleasure of hearing a name?” Bruce drawled.

“of course,” he said, and Bruce could tell from his tone that it was only because of some personal reason, “you may call me Deathstroke.”

As he turned and waltzed out Oliver went still, frozen and tense.

“I gather you recognise the name?” Dinah asked.

“unfortunately,” Oliver said, staring at the door, “big time hot shot mercenary, one of the best, like… could give Batman a run for his money levels of good.”

“great,” Bruce grunted, fishing his lock pick out once more.

“he’s likely working for someone, probably The Light,” Barry said, “they always did say they’d get us eventually, active or no.”

“that would be the obvious explanation,” Bruce said, “but he sounds like the type who is never obvious.”

“never.”

“what’s another possible motive?”

“luring someone in?” Dinah asked.

“but who?” Oliver frowned.

Bruce’s eyes widened, coming to a realisation just as it started picking at the locks.

“the new heroes,” Bruce said.

“what?”

And then Nightwing kicked down the door.

They stared at him. It was uncanny, Bruce supposed. Heroes had been gone for years and then all of a sudden Nightwing showed up- however, from what Bruce could tell, he’d been much younger when he started up, probably about sixteen. Looking at him now, as the ex-Batman, it almost felt like he should know him. something about him definitely seemed familiar.

“evening,” he said, grinning. His voice was being distorted by something in his suit, but it wasn’t the horrible growling that Batman usually went with, instead it seemed like a human voice just a little to the left, slightly too monotone, like it was regulated all to one musical note, “how are we all?”

Barry snickered, “great, Bruce has almost got his cuffs unlocked.”

“almost is a stretch,” he grumbled.

“well,” Nightwing stepped further into the room, starting to type on a holographic keyboard on his glove, “I’ll see what I can do about that.”

“I’ve been going at this for a while,” Bruce said, “I-“

“don’t bother with a pick, this is Deathstroke’s work,” Nightwing said, “physical locking is the hard way, the easy way,” he said, taking a chord from his glove and connecting it to the cuffs, “is figuring out the perfect virus against his tech.”

Within seconds of Nightwing having connected his software to the cuffs they clicked off.

“who’s next? We have ten minutes,” he said. Oliver flicked a hand up eagerly, his own cuffs jerking.

It only took a couple minutes and they were all free, even of the inhibitor collars.

“okay, follow me,” he said.

“what about Deathstroke? Guards?” Oliver asked. He was trying to be nonchalant in case Nightwing didn’t know who he was but Bruce could hear a vague tinge of something in his voice that gave away his familiarity with situations like this one.

“I’ve got my associate on that,” Nightwing said.

As if on cue a red blur appeared, once it slowed it became a man. He was wearing something vaguely similar to the flash suit but with a cowl that left his ginger hair visible and a lot more yellow, with goggles over his eyes.

Bruce saw, in the corner of his eyes, Barry staring at the new Flash with veiled jealousy and annoyance.

“checked the route, we’re all good,” Flash said. He was doing what Barry used to do, vibrating his vocal chords to change his voice.

“then let’s go,” Nightwing said. Bruce could tell he wanted to get out of here quickly before the plan had a chance to be ruined. He clearly had experience dealing with Deathstroke, he likely didn’t want to run the risk of the mercenary showing up.

Nightwing lead them down the halls, through doors, “have you seen anyone or talked to anyone?”

“uh, this guy walked in for a bit of a chat,” Barry said, “weirdo, missing an eye.”

“Deathstroke, yeah,” he said, “did he say anything?”

“not really, but I think he expected you to show up and try to rescue us,” Clark said.

“of course,” Nightwing said, “he expects everything.”

“you sound like you have a history,” Bruce said.

“something like that,” Nightwing said, “I had some trouble with him a couple years ago and he hasn’t left me alone since.”

“yeah,” Oliver said, “I’ve heard people like him get obsessive.”

Nightwing snorted, shaking his head and laughing to himself.

Something about his demeanour made Bruce believe he knew who they were.

“okay, cool, this is going well,” Flash said, “love that.”

“yeah,” Nightwing said, “way too well.”

Bruce almost laughed, this guy was starting to remind him of himself.

It was, at that moment, that the door they were walking through closed on them. Bruce and Nightwing on one side, the rest on the other. If Bruce didn’t know better he’d think it was timed to separate them.

“Nightwing,” came a voice down the hall way, “where do you think you’re going?”

Although.

“Deathstroke,” he said, glaring at the man down the hall.

Maybe he didn’t know better.

Nightwing moved in front of Bruce, taking out his escrima sticks. Deathstroke slid a sword from one of the sheaths on his back.

“so,” Nightwing said, smiling, “trap?”

“of course,” Deathstroke said, “I knew you’d come running for the ex-leaguers.” He rolled his shoulders as he readied his sword, “I take it the usual monologue is unnecessary?”

“I’ve heard it enough, I’ll recite it mentally for you, save time,” Nightwing said, “and you know the answer, any chance we can skip everything and you can let us go, seeing as we’ll escape eventually anyway?”

“not a chance.”

Bruce didn’t pick up on the twitches, but the two did. They sprung into the fight at the same time, somehow having predicted each other’s attacks. Bruce watched on, wondering what to do.

Nightwing took a hit and stumbled back, he glanced at Bruce.

“any chance you could lend a hand?” he said, dodging a hit.

“I’m a bit rusty,” Bruce said.

“I’m not asking for Batman,” he said, and Bruce got the feeling he didn’t like the fact he was asking for help from him at all, “just backup.”

He wasn’t much help, but he tried. The two seemed to dance around each other as they fought, predicting every blow before it came. Bruce was more like a distraction to assist Nightwing.

Deathstroke body slammed Nightwing out of the way, then turned to Bruce. The two traded a few blows, then Deathstroke got a lucky hit in. before Bruce could blink he had a knife to his throat, Deathstroke behind him, twisting his arm.

“stand down, Nightwing,” he said, “or bat-dad dies.”

Bruce frowned. Bat-dad? What?

Nightwing was breathing heavily, they all were, he squared his stance once more, escrima sticks at the ready.

“too scared to really fight, Slade?” he said, “you had to use civilians as leverage?”

“why take the challenge when I can do this?” Deathstroke said, “I’ve had enough of your ability to slip away.”

“yes, I suppose the Light is annoyed by their enforcer’s inability to finish the job.”

Deathstroke laughed, cold and malicious.

“this isn’t on the light’s behalf, boy,” Deathstroke said, “this is purely personal.”

Nightwing blinked, “what?”

Instead of answering, Deathstroke twisted his blade slightly so the light flashed off of it.

“make your choice.”

“let him go,” Nightwing ordered.

“you know the terms.”

Bruce realised, belatedly, that Deathstroke was trying to force Nightwing to join him. Bruce was his leverage.

Why? Why choose him as leverage? If he’d timed the door closing he’d picked Bruce as the specific black mail.

“perhaps you two would like to talk this out privately?” Bruce asked.

“shut it, Wayne,” Deathstroke ordered, “you’re only here to raise the stakes.”

“good job, you went to the trouble of kidnapping a millionaire for no reason, you could have just as easily used Allen against him.”

“we know you’re Batman,” Nightwing said, “quit selling yourself short,” he snickered.

“well,” Deathstroke said, “aside from that-“

“shut it Wilson.”

“oh.” Bruce could hear him grinning, “does he not know?”

What? Know what?

Bruce did not like not knowing things.

“give it a rest, Wilson,” Nightwing hissed, “don’t you have something better to do than annoy me?”

“well, I could do this.”

He flicked the blade so he was holding it backwards, then brought it down, aiming for Bruce’s chest.

Nightwing lurched forward to intercept, he grabbed it at about the same time that Deathstroke let his arm freeze, holding the dagger a hairsbreadth from Bruce’s chest.

“instinct,” Deathstroke said, as if he were tutting at a child.

Nightwing’s face fell, as if he were realising something.

And then Deathstroke’s arm jerked and he hit Nightwing in the nose with the pommel of the dagger.

The two were back to fighting, this time moving a lot more, down the halls and through doors. Bruce was beginning to think that Deathstroke just enjoyed fighting Nightwing.

He huffed as he righted his jacket and started after them.

“okay,” Barry said, “so what are we gonna do about finding Bruce and Nightwing?”

“uh,” Flash said, “I trust that Nightwing’ll figure something out, we’ll probably get to the rendezvous point and he’ll have beaten us there.”

They marched along, Flash barely managing to remember the route. They weren’t very talkative.

“so, you’re the Flash,” Barry said, leaning in, “you even have super speed.”

“yep,” Flash said, clearing his throat. He seemed very uncomfortable and unaware of how to handle this situation.

“cool,” Barry said, “cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, how’d you get the powers?”

“uh,” Flash said, blanking on how to shift the conversation topic.

“was it like, a lightning storm, exposure to something, the turning on of a not-quite-ready particle accelerator machine that caused it to over-flow, turn off the lights of the entire city, put you in a coma and give you super speed?”

Oliver cleared his throat and elbowed Barry in the side.

“right, yeah,” barry said, nodding, “or any other, not specific, possible reason.” He shrugged, “but was it the third one?”

“uh,” Flash blanked, rubbing at the back of his head, “I dunno, it’s a long story, bit blurry, I might have got hit by lightning somewhere in there.”

They kept on walking, they were almost out.

“I really think we should look for Nightwing and Bruce,” Dinah said.

“no, it’ll be fine,” Flash said, although he was starting to get worried.

And then they heard a bang, from a wall to their side. They walked down a hall that opened into a room, if they listened closely they could hear the sounds of fighting. Then the wall banged again, this time the plaster rocked, dust dropped, a crack appeared. And then another bang, as if someone was being slammed against the wall. The crack became a splotch of plaster that dropped off and shattered on the ground.

“what-“

Oliver was cut off, the wall banged again and someone appeared through it, halfway, caught in the plaster. Some of it was scattered all over the ground, the rest slowly falling further apart as the person attempted to free themselves. Then someone else hit them, kicked them rather, right in the chest, and the person fell the rest of the way to the ground, covered in dusty plaster.

It was Deathstroke, blinking at the wall he’d just fell through.

Nightwing stepped through, just as Deathstroke stood.

“oh, shit,” Oliver said, watching as Deathstroke ran and full-body tackled Nightwing back into the room. They could hear the two continuing to fight as Bruce stepped through.

“well,” he said, “you new heroes are definitely ones for drama.”

Flash laughed anxiously, “yeah, sure.”

They heard grunts and a few curses.

“should we… help them?” Oliver said.

“uh,” Clark frowned, looking at the hole in the wall, “you know, I’m actually not sure.”

They heard a malicious cackle, like someone laughing in the face of death, and then Nightwing went flying out the hole in the wall and slid across the ground.

Deathstroke strode out, sword at the ready.

“enough of this!” he hissed.

“yeah,” Nightwing grinned, sitting up, “enough.”

In his hand he held a trigger. Deathstroke stared at it, then looked down at the three explosive devices attached to his chest, beeping. He was blown backwards, into and once more through the wall.

“alright, let’s get going,” Nightwing said.

They rushed out, to the rendezvous point, where Nightwing had asked a friend of his to meet him. he’d pulled a favour, or maybe five, to get them to meet him with a small plane and whisk them back to Gotham.

“Tigger, long time!” Nightwing greeted.

A man stood, leaning against the doorframe of the plane, he scowled down at Nightwing.

“it’s Tiger, you _know_ that,” he said.

They rushed into the plane, Nightwing taking the co-pilot seat and his friend the pilot seat.

“cool,” Flash said, “love it when a plan goes only sort of wrong.”

Once they hit cruise Tiger took the controls on his own and Nightwing stepped back to where everyone else was.

“okay,” he said, “any injuries? No? good.”

“yes, now we can get to the interrogations,” Bruce said, “how the hell do you know who we are?”

Flash looked on, confused. Nightwing merely smiled.

“I’ve done my research,” he said, leaning against one of the tables between the chairs.

Flash cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, what are you talking about?”

“oh, shit, sorry,” Nightwing said, “uh, so, I forgot to mention that this lot are, you know,” he made a face, “the original justice league.”

Flash blinked, “excuse me?”

“wow,” Barry snorted, “he even keeps secrets from his fellow team mates like Batman.”

“I didn’t-“ Bruce started.

“you did,” Clark chuckled, “you had a plan for what to do if we all turned evil and everything.”

“wait, hang on,” Flash said, “sorry, back up, you’re telling me you,” he pointed at them all, but his finger was specifically aimed at Barry, “are… you know-“

“yeah,” Barry said, grinning at Flash, “hi.”

Flash blinked at Barry, not taking this revelation at all well.

“anyway,” Nightwing said, “I suppose you want to dip your toes back in, even though you’re all _very_ retired, because you think you should step in and, I don’t know, ensure today’s heroes aren’t idiots or whatever, because you think you of all people are qualified to judge us.”

Oliver stared at him, “I am very sure I should be offended by all of that.”

“good, then I said it right,” Nightwing said.

“let‘s put it this way,” Dinah said, “the two of you just rescued us, which suggests you know what you’re doing, but I’m sure you can understand our need to check, you know,” she said, “for… reasons.”

Nightwing laughed, snickered more like. Flash stared at them.

“no, you don’t get to interrogate,” he said, “you gave up on this life years ago, you don’t get to change your mind just because people are stepping in to do the jobs you left.”

“we had to leave,” Dinah said, “if we kept on the amount of trouble we’d have would stop us from doing the job entirely.”

“so you quit,” Nightwing grinned, “just give up, that works.”

“we didn’t give up,” Clark said, “we realised we could do more as normal people.”

“yeah, these two,” Barry pointed out Oliver and Bruce, “are friggin’ billionaires, they’ve done a lot now they don’t have to worry about dressing up in leather and getting beaten near death.”

“yeah, sure, when Joker shows up they can wave stacks of money at him and he’ll go away.”

Flash wasn’t joining in, just staring.

“are you okay?” Barry asked, looking at Flash.

“no, fine, just,” he stared at Barry, “does Iris know?”

Nightwing sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “oh, god you’re not good at this are you?” he muttered.

“what?” Barry asked, staring at Flash, he stood, “how do you know that name?”

“I asked my question first.”

Barry scowled and grabbed Flash by the front of his uniform, “how do you know that name?!”

Flash scowled, “does she know?”

“yes, she knows, she’s known since the beginning,” Barry said, “now how do you know that name?”

Flash laughed, ripping Barry’s hands from him.

“you know, this is just ironic in all the worst ways,” he said, pointing a finger in Barry’s face, “you know I used to look up to you.”

“yeah, well I suppose that changed when you realised I’d ‘given up’ on the hero gig,” Barry said, crossing his arms.

“no, I wasn’t talking about the Flash, I was talking about _you._ Barry Allen,” Flash said.

“excuse me?” Barry said.

“you know what,” Flash said, laughing slightly, “fuck it.”

Nightwing looked at him, “no, don’t, Flash-“

He rolled his eyes and, with one movement, swept the cowl down, the goggles falling with it. his ears rang slightly as the buds moved and the music dropped out, but he quickly pushed them back in.

Barry blinked staring at Wally, Wally stared at him with a dark look.

Nightwing sighed, dropping his face in the palm of his hand.

“you’re…” Barry stared, “but… that’s not possible, how are you-“

“I copied your particle accelerator,” Wally said, “I guess we both had similar outcomes.”

“yes, it’s all very funny and ironic,” Nightwing said, “Moving on, now-“

“You’re the flash!” Barry stared, gaping, “why didn’t you tell me?”

“because I thought you were a civilian, I thought you were just a scientist!” Wally yelled back.

“does anyone know?”

“no,” Wally said, then pointed at Nightwing, “except him, he found out somehow.”

“okay, look-“

Barry cut Nightwing off, “you could get hurt!”

“yeah, that’s kinda part of the job.”

“Wally!”

“someone has to do it!” Wally scowled, “Central needs The Flash.”

Barry looked like he was going to continue to argue but he closed his mouth. His angry face slowly dissolving, “I’m sorry I’m trying to be mad but also I am very proud of you right now.”

Wally snorted, “yeah, sure, whatever.”

Barry hugged Wally, looking like he was holding back happy tears, “my nephew is the Flash, that’s so cool, we’re keeping it in the family.”

“Barry,” Dinah sighed.

“shut up, let me be happy,” he said.

Wally finally gave in to the hug, “does this mean I have your blessing?”

“no,” Bruce broke in, “the reason we disbanded was because between the Light and the government we were unable to do our job, you two need to take the masks off and put your talents to better use.”

“that’s not happening,” Nightwing said.

“yeah,” Wally added, finally managing to get Barry to let go of him, “I can’t sit around doing nothing when I know I can be making a difference.”

“you decided to walk away, that was your choice,” Nightwing said, “this is our choice now.”

“you don’t know what you’re getting into,” Clark said.

“I’ve been fine for the past years, I think I can handle it,” Nightwing said.

“Gotham is worse than you think,” Bruce said, stepping closer.

“trust me,” he said, “I’m well aware.”

“I _don’t_ trust you,” Bruce said, “that’s the point.”

“sounds like a you problem.”

“well, I’ll make it _your_ problem," Bruce said, “I don’t trust you, and I will make that publicly known if I have to.”

“Bruce.”

“no,” Bruce cut Diana off, “I’m not letting the people of my city-“

“it stopped being _your_ city a long time ago,” Nightwing cut in.

“just cause I’m not wearing the suit, doesn’t mean I’m not working to save it,” Bruce said, “one call is all it takes and Commissioner Gordon is on your back, that’s a quick catalyst.”

“you don’t want to do that,” Nightwing said.

“make me believe that.”

Wally stepped in, “look, dude,” he smiled, “maybe it’s worth it. these are our predecessors, they can help, we can trust them.”

“I don’t do team ups,” Nightwing said, “this was purely because of necessity, _Flash_.”

“come on, even Batman worked with a team.”

“barely,” Dinah snorted.

Nightwing glared at them all, finishing on Bruce.

“fine.” He scowled, “you want to play buddy-buddy with the old folks, you do that,” he said to Flash, “but I’m not interested.”

Dinah stood, “not even Batman was invincible, you need friends, team mates, back up.”

“I’ve been fine so far,” Nightwing said, “and I didn’t say I don’t have allies, only that I don’t need you.”

He started for the pilot’s cabin, Bruce followed, grabbing him by the forearm and turning him. Nightwing wrenched his arm from his grip, everyone could tell he really wanted to punch Bruce.

“you can’t expect everyone to trust you when they know nothing about you,” Bruce said, “and you know everything about them.”

Nightwing stared, “wasn’t that your whole shtick?”

“and I’m the one telling you it doesn’t work,” Bruce said, “take it from someone who tried, this job isn’t a solo gig.”

Nightwing stared at him, glaring.

“you know what?” he said, “whatever. You lot want to think you’re so high and mighty because you used to do something worthwhile? Fine, I’ll indulge, if it’ll get you to _leave me alone_.”

He held his arm up and pressed a button on his glove, Bruce guessed he’d just turned off the voice altering software.

He then peeled off his mask.

“I found the Batcave,” Dick said, “fourteen years old, I found it, you should check up on that.” he scowled, “it’s a security risk.”

Then he turned from the room and marched to the pilot’s cabin.

He left a room full of ex-heroes gaping at him, Bruce staring at his back in shock.

Nightwing was Dick Grayson. How had they not known?


End file.
